What Cinema Is! offers an engaging answer to Andre Bazin'sfamous question, exploring his 'idea of cinema' with a sweepinglook back at the near century of Cinema's phenomenal ascendancy. * Written by one of the foremost film scholars of our time * Establishes cinema's distinction from the current enthusiasmover audio-visual entertainment, without relegating cinema to asingle, older mode * Examines cinema's institutions and its social force through thequalities of key films * Traces the history of an idea that has made cinema supremelyalive to (and in) our times